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Every Guest Star on The Office, from Seasons 1 Through 9
Anyone who's anyone wants a job at Dunder Mifflin.
NBC's beloved sitcom The Office (streaming now in its entirety on Peacock, alongside seven seasons of superfan episodes!) made celebrities of everyone at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, churning out a respectable slate of stars who went on to have successful careers in movies and television. Along the way, the show became such a cultural touchstone that all sorts of people made a pilgrimage, however brief, to the fictional Pennsylvania paper company.
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It wasn’t uncommon to see Hollywood royalty hanging out alongside Michael (Steve Carell), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), and the rest of the staff. And the flood of guest stars only increased as the show’s popularity grew. The Scranton branch was a veritable who’s who of comedy, and these are our favorite Office temps.
All the Amazing Guest Stars on The Office
Amy Adams as Katy Moore
We all hoped that Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) were going to get together eventually, but before that, Jim went through a few love interests. Jim’s first on-screen girlfriend was Katy Moore, played by Amy Adams.
Katy first appears in the Season 1 episode “Hot Girl” when she takes up the conference room to sell bags to the staff. As the title of the episode suggests, many of the men in the office are attracted to Katy and they take turns trying to win her favor. Despite the romantic tension already simmering between Jim and Pam, Jim starts a relationship with Katy. After all, Pam was engaged to Roy, what else could Jim do?
Katy made two more appearances in Season 2 episodes “The Fire” and “Booze Cruise.”
Ken Jeong as Michael's Improv Partner Bill
In the Season 2 episode “Email Surveillance,” Dunder Mifflin’s local IT guy shows up to install software to monitor the employees’ email traffic. As the office manager, Michael knows about the software and uses it to spy on his subordinates, to his own dismay. The emails reveal that everyone is attending a barbecue that he wasn’t invited to.
Instead of attending the gathering, Michael goes to an improv class where we meet Bill, another improv student played by Ken Jeong. His short stint on The Office wasn’t Jeong’s first role after transitioning from the healing arts to the theatrical arts, but it was pretty close. Within a few years, Jeong emerged as one of the best new voices in comedy with roles in Step Brothers, The Hangover, and Community, to name just a few.
Rob Riggle as Captain Jack
An after-hours team-building exercise takes the staff out of the office onto a boat in the Season 2 episode “Booze Cruise.” See, Michael happened to notice that you can’t spell “leadership” without “ship,” and that was enough to get everyone out on the open water of a local lake… in the dead of winter.
Claiming to be the captain of the office and, thereby, the captain of the evening, gets Michael into trouble with the vessel's actual leader, Captain Jack (Rob Riggle). The two of them get into a contest of one upmanship eventually leading to Michael being handcuffed to a rail after a passenger jumps overboard. Amy Adams makes her final appearance as Jim’s date, Katy, who hits it off with an old high school chum, who just so happens to be Pam’s fiance, Roy.
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Yvette Nicole Brown as Dwight's Coworker Paris
Toward the middle of Season 3, Andy (Ed Helms) creates a situation leading to Dwight’s resignation, attempting to unseat him as Michael’s right hand in "Traveling Salesman." While looking for his true calling, Dwight takes a job at a local Staples where he works alongside Paris (Yvette Nicole Brown) in the episode “The Return.” The two of them do not get along.
Brown would lend her comedic stylings to just one episode before becoming a member of everyone’s favorite study group in all six seasons of Community. Brown played Shirley Bennett alongside another Office guest star, Ken Jeong.
Jack Black as the Character Sam in Mrs. Albert Hannaday
Musician, comedian, and the voice of Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Jack Black needs no introduction and it shouldn’t be surprising that his appearance on The Office was a little unconventional. Black appears during the two-part Season 5 episode “Stress Relief,” but we only see him on a laptop screen, an actor in the fictional movie Mrs. Albert Hannaday.
In his capacity as office Safety Advisor, Dwight decides the best way to train for a fire is to experience one. He closes the doors and starts a trashcan fire leading to panic, structural damage to the office, and Stanley suffering a heart attack. Corporate comes down on the branch and Michael tries a variety of ways to lighten the mood, including a roast, which hurts his feelings.
Meanwhile, Andy has pirated a copy of Mrs. Albert Hannaday, a bizarre love triangle narrative featuring Sam (Jack Black), Sophie (Jessica Alba), and Sophie’s Grandmother Lily. Andy mistakes Jim and Pam’s personal conversation for a commentary on the movie, leaving him confused and convinced they are movie geniuses.
Jessica Alba as the Character Sophie in Mrs. Albert Hannady
See above.
Christian Slater as Himself
By Season 6, Dunder Mifflin becomes acquired by electronics company Sabre, in an episode of the same name. After an embarrassing rendition of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA,” with the lyrics replaced to say “Dunder Mifflin is a part of Sabre” pronounced incorrectly as “Saw-bray,” the employees are treated to a Sabre promotional video.
They are welcomed to the Sabre family by none other than Christian Slater, as himself. Like most corporate media, the video is a mixture of saccharine platitudes and nonsense. “Have you ever tasted a rainbow?” Slater asks. “At Sabre, you will.”
Evan Peters as Michael's Nephew Luke Cooper
In the Season 7 premiere, “Nepotism,” Andy and Erin (Ellie Kemper) are dating, Dwight owns the building, and a new assistant arrives to the dismay of everyone else in the office. Evan Peters plays the irritating Luke Cooper, the worst assistant you’ve ever seen and Michael’s nephew.
Luke is late, he messes up tasks to the detriment of the sales staff, and despite his terrible work ethic and awful attitude, Michael defends him. Even with Michael’s protection, Luke’s actions cost the branch money, bringing the wrath of Sabre CEO Jo Bennett (Cathy Bates). In response, Michael spanks Luke in front of the rest of the staff, causing Luke to quit in tears.
Timothy Olyphant as Super Salesman Danny Cordray
During a sales pitch Jim and Dwight run into the best paper salesperson in Scranton, Danny Cordray, played by Timothy Olyphant. When Cordray takes home the sale even after Dunder Mifflin offers an objectively better deal, they set up a secret operation to find out Cordray’s secret in the Season 7 episode “The Sting.”
Meredith (Kate Flannery) pretends to be the CEO of a fake company called Solartech, and takes a pitch from Cordray in a room equipped with secret cameras. Remember, however, that this is a scheme hatched by Michael Scott, and it’s doomed to fail spectacularly. When that happens, Michael offers Cordray a job, which he accepts. Olyphant appears in the next episode, “Costume Contest,” before departing Dunder Mifflin and the show.
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Ricky Gervais as David Brent
As Season 7 approached its end, Steve Carrell was on his way out and the opportunity for guest spots ramped up. Appropriately enough, the first to take that opportunity was none other than Michael Scott’s U.K. counterpart, David Brent (The Office co-creator Ricky Gervais), in "The Seminar."
During their brief encounter, Brent asks Michael if there are any openings at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. There aren’t, but Michael promises to keep him in mind if anything opens up. Brent makes another appearance in the Season 7 finale, “Search Committee,” where he interviews via video call to become the new office manager.
Will Ferrell as Deangelo Vickers
After Michael’s departure to Colorado and a life with Holly Flax, he is replaced by Will Ferrell’s Deangelo Vickers. The character first appears in “Training Day” and he remains the boss of the Scranton branch for a four-episode stretch.
During his tenure at Dunder Mifflin, Vickers manages to alienate most of the office staff and prove what the viewers knew all along: there are way worse bosses than Micheal Scott. Deangelo’s last appearance is in the episode “The Inner Circle,” during which he pretends to have a number of impressive skills including being a master juggler and having the ability to dunk a basketball. When those abilities are called into question, everyone makes their way down to the warehouse, where Vickers injures himself and is carried away on a stretcher.
Will Arnett as Fred Henry
Deangelo remains in a coma after his warehouse basketball injury and Creed (Creed Bratton) is holding down the fort in his own special way, while a “Search Committee” tries to find a new boss. In addition to in-house applicants, a number of outsiders interview for the job including Will Arnett as Fred Henry. Henry makes big promises about how he would improve the branch’s performance despite exhibiting no real skills or knowledge of the company.
Ray Romano as Merv Bronte
Ray Romano also features in "Search Committee" as Merv Bronte, another hopeful applicant. Unfortunately for Merv, he has a run-in with Robert California (James Spader) who psyches him out and tricks him into blowing the interview.
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Jim Carrey as the Finger Lakes Guy
Jim Carrey rounds out the "Search Committee" applicants as an unnamed character known only as the Finger Lakes Guy because of his apparent obsession with the Finger Lakes near Lake Ontario. He’s from the Finger Lakes, he’s supposed to be in the Finger Lakes. He snuck away to do the interview while he’s supposed to be hiking and he needs to get back before his family starts to worry. People disappear in the Finger Lakes.
Josh Groban as Andy's Brother Walter Jr.
Andy is starved for attention, always preening and annoying people with his friendship. The arrival of his little brother, Walter Jr., in the Season 8 episode “Garden Party” reveals why Andy is the way he is.
See, Andy’s name was Walter Jr. until he was six years old and his younger brother was born. Then his parents renamed him, sensing that their new baby was a better fit to carry the Walter legacy. Andy has been living under that shadow for most of his life. To make matters worse, Walter Jr. regularly upstages his brother until his life falls apart due to an alcohol problem.
The duo make amends in “The Boat” when Andy finds Walter Jr. drunk on the family boat and the two of them sail the vessel together, delivering it to its new owner.
Stephen Colbert as Broccoli Rob
Throughout the series, Andy regularly makes reference to his college acapella group, “Here Comes Treble.” In the Season 9 episode of the same name, we finally meet his old friend Broccoli Rob, played by Ed Helms’ The Daily Show colleague, Stephen Colbert.
While trying to impress the current incarnation of Here Comes Treble, Andy learns that Broccoli Rob has taken credit for all of his college exploits. It’s an injury that Broccoli Rob reopens when he appears on a webcam to steal the spotlight from Andy one last time.
Dakota Johnson as Kevin’s Replacement
In the series finale, the documentary of The Office has been released and the crew is returning to Scranton to pick up bonus material for the DVD release. It’s then that we discover Kevin’s (Brian Baumgartner) inventive accounting strategies have caught up with him, leading to his termination.
Kevin’s replacement in the accounting department is a young woman named Dakota, played by Dakota Johnson. You may recognize her from performances in The Social Network and the Fifty Shades movie series. In The Office lore, she’s the one responsible for finding Kevin’s magic number “keleven.” It’s an invented number he used to balance his accounts after making a mistake. Oscar tells Dakota that Kevin used to say “a mistake plus keleven gets you home by 7:00.” It’s the reason he was fired.
Johnson has come a long way since her stint at Dunder Mifflin. She will next appear as Cassandra Webb in Marvel’s upcoming superhero film Madame Web.
Joan Cusack and Ed Begly Jr. as Erin's Estranged Parents
It has been a year since the documentary of The Office was released, and the ordinary workaday people of Dunder Mifflin Scranton have become in-universe celebrities. In the two-part series finale, they hold a Q&A with a group of assembled fans.
A woman (Joan Cusack) walks to the microphone and asks Erin if she hates her parents for abandoning her as a baby. She says yes, but only in the way that all children “hate” their parents sometimes. Eventually, Erin realizes that the woman is, in fact, her mother, who's come to reconnect. Then her father (Ed Begly Jr.) rises and asks the same thing, revealing that Erin’s father has come for her as well. The trio are later seen together at Angela (Angela Kinsey) and Dwight's wedding.
Catch every guest star appearance (and every other episode, besides) on The Office, streaming now on Peacock. And if you're looking for a little extra time at work, check out the superfan episodes (now available through season 7) for never-before-seen extended cuts.
